Geneva, Annecy and Aigle

We travelled to Geneva via Hythe in Kent where we had an overnight stop and caught up with Les and Carol for a pub meal. Always great company. After an uneventful ferry ride we drove to Fontainebleau a site half an hour South of Paris on the Seine where we stayed in 2009. A quite evening sipping wine and watching the occasional barge go by is hard to take.

After an overnight stop we left for Geneva. We had a great site close to the edge of Lake Geneva and were entertained by a small troupe of 5 teenagers juggling, undertaking some dancing/acrobats and then playing with diabolos.

Lake Geneva was stunning (as always) with its iconic “l’eau jet” which travels some 140 metres up. Not that the swans gave a dam, their focus was on eating. The water was too deep for the youngster and quite a challenge for Mum.

We had the benefit of Phil’s unit (nephew) who is based in Geneva. The main challenge was keeping food up to him so he did not waste away. Not too hard when the markets around the corner had such great produce.

Although the pastrami was more of Phil’s liking than the checkered blackberries and raspberries. A team of three continually carved thin slices and laid them carefully on paper for sale (having the occasional piece themselves!). The knives are very thin flexible blades which were regularly sharpened.

Phil was keen we tasted a couple of local meals including Raclette. This is where you have cheese which you melt using a brazier and then eat with bread, cold meats sausage and new potatoes. The cheese on the right can be slid close to the brazier as required and the one on the left has a small frying pan where a flat camembert may be heated. The molten cheese is then scraped off and handed around. Brilliant for a cold day – and not bad on a hot one – but very filling (even Phil could not finish the last of the wedge). We had this at Chamonix which is the start point for the gondolas up to Mont Blanc.
Chamonix is a typical alpine village with spectacular backdrops on clear days. Mont Blanc is just off to the left of this range.

The gondolas are in two sections and quickly took us to the Aigulle du Midi at 3842 metres (which is only just below Mont Blanc at 4810 metres). You don’t appear to be getting much higher than this when flying.

The lift goes along the side of a glacier which becomes increasingly more fragmented with stalagmite type structure towards the bottom.

Some of the lift passengers were not travelling just for the views and came loaded with ruck sacks, crampons, ropes and the like. They then took off across some particularly wonderful topography.

At the end of the walk some to the mountaineers looked remarkably fresh

Whereas others really struggled with the pace….

In reality the height was more than most of us had experienced before and we all felt the altitude particularly after we had walked up the 50 or so steps to the viewing platform. Phil was not the only one to sleep (but he was the youngest). Others were quite distressed – which was remarkably reversed as soon as we got down to the lower lift station.

Fortunately Phil had to take off for work and Jo, Helen and I had a lay day to catch up and stroll around Geneva and in my case replace the gas regulator for the ‘van which had played up.

Our next trip was to Annecy. This is just beautiful with pretty lively fast flowing streams dividing the town (both ancient and more modern areas).

The girls loved it…

We decided to do a trip around the lake and as there was a dinner trip opted for this. The food was excellent and as for the ambience .. well only last years QM2 trip really surpassed this.

The views from the vessel were numerous and culling to obtain one for the blog was quite a challenge but this wasn’t bad..

A memorable evening.

Overnight Sue and Martin flew into Geneva and joined us on a somewhat circuitous route to the airport (ie around the lake) so that we could drop Jo off for her trip back to Brum. Jo’s eye had been caught by a museum chateau which was a unique combination. It was called Aigle and is at the Eastern end of lake Geneva where the Rhone enters the lake.

The food was simple but wonderfully presented and lunch quickly took on a couple of hours once we had discovered the Pinot Gamay. A great lunchtime wine.

The view from the patio was awesome

The chateau dates back to the end of the 12th century and was slowly built upon over the years and between 1804 and as late as 1972 served as both court and prison.

The ramparts give great views over the countryside.

Here the view is toward lake Geneva through the valley carved by the Rhone.

Some of the museum pieces are interesting. A couple of inn signs caught my eye – who needs words when this was presumably called the crown and was open day and night (24 hours).

However the amount of wine grown in the area was a revelation to all of us.

2011 SW England

We headed off at the start of July for the warmer climes of the Northern hemispheres. This will be the EFSI trip (nothing to do with soccer) but England, France, Switzerland and Italy. Our first assumption of warmer weather however was ill founded.

After getting off the plane we spent the rest of the day collecting the ‘van and taking it for a service as well as calling into the garage that had serviced our car (XC90). Slept pretty well that night! The next day we set off for a few days in a self contained unit near Bodmin in Cornwall. Our first outing was to Doc Martin’s place (also called Port Isaac) on the North coast. The white lower building was the restaurant.
It is a very pretty town albeit a little cool. The third building from the right is Doc Martin’s house. We took advantage of a footpath around the headland and set off for a 3 mile walk so that we could eat a little guilt free lunch.

On our return after all the activity we needed some assistance so Helen called into the Doc’s house. (Un?)fortunately there was no one home even though on this occasion there was no blood involved.

Our second trip was to the Eden project. This is what can be done in a defunct quarry. There are a series of “biospheres” which are linked and form two discrete micro-climates (Rain forest and Mediterranean). The whole architecture of the site is remarkable and a day was happily whiled away.

The rainforest dome is huge and at the end of a winding gentle walk (where it slowly gets to 30+ degrees C and 100% humidity) there is the option to climb up stairs to overview the whole scene.

The platform and stairs are suspended and hence sway. The steps and base are a metal see through grid so some visitors may be reluctant to participate. However the views are awesome. The size of this waterfall can be appreciated as it dwarfs the pedestrian traffic.

The link between the two climates is a large well organised food hall where we ate. Although the food was good there was more appealing food and area to eat just inside the Mediterranean bio sphere so next time…

Our next trip was to another climate altogether. We bought tickets to the Minack open air theatre which is close to Lands End. Its atmosphere is unique with the background noise of the sea crashing into the rocks. A natural amphitheatre which has been honed to accommodate seating for some 500 people is a great setting.

The show goes on whatever the weather and we were fortunate that it stayed dry for all but the interval (where it did rain and blow quite heavily). We saw the Death of Sherlock Holmes, a light affair which was rather funny. The actors do everything themselves (stage changes etc). They must be robust types as they would also need to act in the rain.

We travelled back via a sea view road between the Cape of Cornwall (for many years thought to be the most Western Point but now usurped by Lands End) to St Ives. This is an attractive route broken by old tin mines most of which have seen better days.

St Ives is a picturesque albeit busy town made famous by the poem:

When I was going to St Ives,
I met a man with seven wives
Each wife had seven sacks
Each sack had seven cats
Each cat had seven kittens
Kits, cats, sacks and wives
How many were going to St Ives?

(A well known teacher gave me this..)

The two of us had a great evening meal of Plaice at the Alba restaurant which used to be the old lifeboat house. The view from the restaurant over the harbour was enhanced by the evening light.Even when a shower came through the light worked its magic.

Charlestown on the South coast is a small colourful port which has gates so that ships are protected from the tide. This enables a couple of tall ships to be permanently based here. In an earlier visit we have stayed at Emily cottage which is one of the white terraced buildings overlooking the harbour.

Having had a pretty slack couple of days we decided that some serious walking was required and with Bodmin moors on our doorstep the answer was easy. We started with a bit of lunch at Jamaica Inn (made famous by Daphne Du Maurier’s book of the same name but other than that nothing to write home about), parked the car about 1 Km down the road and set off past a farm house.

The moors are just as you would expect, windy and much of the walking not too steep but with many little diversions around wet boggy areas. The “wildlife” that we saw comprised, ponies, cows and sheep. We did see an eagle (although the photos were not worthy of the blog).
Map reading was through fences and contours. The run up to the highest point was a brief steep section onto the highest point “Brown Willie”. Our local mountaineer made the peak easily.

On our way back to Solihull we called into the Blue Lisa Inn for the Biennial meeting of the Australian Canal Society. We caught up with a few reprobates such as Sue and Martin Smith. We nearly took off on this boat as this is one of the few trips not to include a week on a canal barge.